by Dale Mayer
As she walked back into the bullpen, some of the other team members arrived. Lilliana was dressed to the nines. Kate stopped, stared, and whistled. “Good God,” she said, “you’re always magazine perfect.”
Lilliana looked at her in surprise. “Magazine perfect?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I wouldn’t have a clue how to even begin to dress like that. And I can’t imagine doing any work in heels.”
“They’re not so bad,” she said. “I’ve been wearing them all my life, so whatever.”
“Yeah, for you maybe. I’d get headaches from the altitude,” she said, with a sneer.
“Maybe, but, if you weren’t so short in the first place, it wouldn’t be a problem.”
She laughed, and the two women settled into their desks, as Colby walked in.
“We got in a couple reports overnight,” he said. “Nothing too bad. You’ve got a new case downtown on the east side. A body in a Dumpster. Looks like she was an escort. I don’t see it as connected to any other case. But, of course, it’s up to you guys to figure that out, and we need to get moving on these other cases. I understand that we’ve made some progress, but we haven’t gotten anything we can give to the prosecutor. And believe me. He’s chomping at the bit on the drive-by shootings.”
“We’re getting somewhere on that one,” Kate said, “but it’s still not anything we have an actual suspect on.”
“That’s the problem,” he said. “We don’t have anyone to lock on to, so we don’t have anything to give him.”
“And you gave him what we had?”
“Oh, yes, he was happy with that. I mean, it’s progress. We have the guy who drove off with the vehicle. We have an eyewitness viewing of this guy from the back, which isn’t helpful at all, so what the heck are we supposed to do now?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped. “I wanted to go back to the older woman, who originally owned the vehicle.”
“And what will that tell you?” Colby asked her in surprise.
“If she had any idea who stole the vehicle.”
The others turned to look at her; she shrugged. “They had to have shown it to somebody at some point. It was kept in their locked garage at home, so who would have known it was there? Could have been a random theft maybe, but it’s not exactly a collector’s item. It’s not something that would have had a GPS on it or some car alarm for sure. But chances are also good that nobody would have known it was even there. So what are the chances that her husband showed it to somebody, and then it went missing, either right away or a little later?”
“Follow it up,” Colby said. “And make sure you’re checking on the Forensics Division.”
“They’re all over it,” she said. “We’re just waiting for the reports.”
At that, his lips twitched. “Looking good. We’re always waiting on something, aren’t we?”
“Forensics usually,” she said, with spirit.
He nodded. “I hear you, but I’ll talk to the DA anyway.” And, with that, he turned and walked back out again.
She looked over at the others and shrugged. “I’m not wrong, am I?”
“No, the backlog is usually Forensics. Like everyone, they’re short on budget. We need more people down there, and we’re not getting them.”
“I think the cities are always short on budgets, aren’t they?” Kate asked curiously. “Is this really an issue, or is it an ongoing excuse?”
“I think it really is an issue at this point,” Rodney said, stepping up. “I’ll come with you to ask the wife about the truck.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I like the idea,” he said, “and just because the husband may have shown it to somebody doesn’t mean the wife knows.”
Lilliana added, “Remember too that she’s in a home. So just because she might have known something at one time doesn’t mean she knows it anymore.”
With that warning in the back of her mind, Kate drove this time and took Rodney to the retirement home, which was located in the Locarno area. “Nice area,” she said, looking around.
“Yeah, it’s really built up in here. We have a lot of really high-end places, but this area being close to the university has always been popular.”
“As long as you don’t mind hills,” she said, as she turned off Eleventh Street and headed down to Tenth.
“Absolutely,” he said, as he looked at her in surprise. “You’re going up the alleyway?”
“Yeah, I checked online, and the parking is a little on the scarce side,” she said, as she parked at the back, and they got out and took a look around. “Looks like a nice little place.” The lot was very large, with trees on the side, a nice wooden fence, and lots of little benches.
“Look. A bit of a view too,” he said, pointing to the front, which looked out over Locarno Beach.
“Which is lovely,” she murmured.
“Thinking about your own retirement?” he said jokingly.
She rolled her eyes at him. “My mother is in a home already,” she said.
“We could always transfer her here,” he said in serious tone.
“No, she won’t be doing anything with me,” she snapped.
“Ouch, ugly childhood.”
She looked at him and said, “I’m sure you know my history.”
He flushed. “Oh God, I’m sorry. I forgot.”
“It is what it is,” she said.
“Must have been really tough,” he said. “I can’t even imagine what it would have been like.”
“Most people can’t,” she said, “and, to a certain extent, that’s totally okay. What makes it tough is when it keeps coming back and hitting you every once in a while, and you don’t realize just what the impact is.”
“You don’t get along with her?”
“She still blames me,” she said briefly.
He looked at her in surprise.
She shrugged. “It’s easier if you can blame somebody else instead of yourself, right?”
“I suppose. But how old were you?” he asked.
“Seven,” she said quietly, knowing full well that nobody in this world would believe a seven-year-old except for the parent. But not hers.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I mean, not only did you lose your brother, it sounds like you also lost your mother at the same time.”
She cocked her head, as they walked up the front steps. “It’s not a bad way of looking at it,” she murmured. “I didn’t really put the words that way in my head, but it’s not bad.”
“How could anybody blame you at that age?” he asked, shaking his head. “That just doesn’t make sense.”
“Like I said, it’s much easier to blame somebody else.”
He nodded. “And it’s still an open case, isn’t it?”
“Well, if you mean in the sense that he’s never been found, yes,” she said. “Open in that it was never solved. But is anybody looking at it besides me? I doubt it. There’s not been any news. There hasn’t been anything to move forward with. So, in other words, nothing for anybody to go on. But still, every time I hear that a body has turned up for a child gone missing,” she said, “it just brings it all back up.”
“Which is why the last case would have really gotten to you,” he said, nodding. “I’m sorry. We didn’t realize how tough it would have been for you.”
“It was a long time ago,” she said.
“Maybe so, but I’m sure dealing with that pedophile ring didn’t help you.”
“No, and it didn’t help that one of the victims was named Timothy,” she said shortly. He looked at her sideways, and she nodded. “Yes, that was my brother’s name.”
“Talk about pushing some buttons.” He winced. “At the same time, we were pretty shitty to you, weren’t we?”
She shrugged. “I expected it. It’s over with now anyway.”
“No,” he said, “we were definitely shitty to you.”
She laughed. “Whatever. I had my own problems, so I wasn’t gettin
g sucked into yours.”
“We as a group definitely had a problem,” he said. “So it’s good that we’re all getting along much better now.”
“Yeah. It’s a good thing,” she said cheerfully. “Who has time for all that anyway?”
“Right,” he said, shaking his head. He stepped forward, opened the door, and she walked in past him.
“Thanks,” she said, with a cheeky grin. As they walked up to the reception desk, Kate identified herself. “Hello, we’re here to see Jan Spiller.”
The woman looked at her in surprise. “I’ll see where she is right now,” she said, then got up and walked into the back.
“What do you think she’s checking?” Rodney asked her.
“The schedule maybe, who knows. Maybe she’s trying to figure out which resident it is.”
When the woman came back, she had a chart. “It looks like she is outside in the backyard.”
“I saw a couple ladies sitting off to the side,” Kate said, as she turned and studied the big window behind her. “We need to know which one she is, so could somebody take us out there, please?” She used a more informal tone of voice, looking for cooperation instead of trying to make this formal. But, at the same time, she wasn’t about to go around talking to several residents trying to find the one they were looking for.
“Yes, of course,” she said, “just a moment.” She called over an aide, and when the gentleman arrived, she said, “Could you take these two out to meet with Jan Spiller, please?”
He nodded. “Sure, she’s outside having tea,” he said. “Follow me.”
They followed him back outside, and Kate could really appreciate the fact that the residents had lots of fresh air, big open doors, and lots of light. “Are the residents generally happy here?” she asked.
He nodded. “We have very little turnover,” he said, “outside of the expected.”
At that, she raised an eyebrow in question.
He shrugged. “Most of them leave in an ambulance.”
She nodded. “I guess it goes with the age group, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” he said. “Jan is no problem. She’s easy to get along with and always has a friendly smile on her face.”
“Good.”
“Is there a problem?” he asked hesitantly.
“Nope, not at all,” Kate said. “Just need to ask her some questions.”
He nodded. “I hope you don’t upset her. She does take a long time to calm down.”
“What things would upset her?” Kate asked in surprise.
“It’s hard to say but usually her family.”
“Oh, that’s great,” she said. “Because we definitely have some family questions involved.”
He winced. “Would you object if I hung around? She might feel better.”
“Nope, we’re not asking anything private,” she said.
“Okay, good. Maybe I’ll do that then.”
As they approached, he walked up and said, “Hello, Jan. How are you doing today?”
Jan looked up, smiled at him, and said, “Darryl, it’s so good to see you. How’s the wife doing, dear?”
They had a quick chat that said a lot about how informal and friendly everybody was with each other here. He turned and looked to Kate, who held up her badge, as he said, “These two people are here to ask you a few questions.”
Jan turned and looked at the two of them in surprise. “Oh, well, I don’t know what possible questions you think you could ask me,” she said. “I really don’t know anything. What’s this all about?”
Kate stepped forward, took one of the other chairs, and pulled it around so she was closer but not intimidatingly so. “We wanted to ask you about your truck that was stolen a while back.”
She groaned. “Oh, that old thing,” she said. “I can’t imagine that it’s of any value anymore, and it’s been gone for years.” She frowned for a moment and said, “I think it’s been maybe four or five years. I’m not so good with time anymore, you know?” she said, leaning forward almost conspiratorially.
“You’re doing just fine,” Kate said, with a chuckle. “And, yes, it was about that time frame. The truck has turned up again, and we’re just wondering if you had any idea who might have stolen it.”
“I can’t imagine why the police would care after all this time,” she said almost crossly.
“Well, it’s important,” Kate explained. “So it was worth the trip to come and see this lovely place and to see if you had any information you could share with us.”
“Oh my,” she said.
It was almost as if the woman could imagine what budget money was being wasted on this. Kate didn’t want to be the one to tell her that the truck had been used in several drive-by shootings. But, as she studied the woman, Kate asked, “Did your husband do a lot of work on it?”
“He was always out there with that thing.”
“Did the neighbors come and see it? Did anybody seem particularly interested in it?”
The old woman looked at her in surprise. “You’re not thinking one of our friends stole it, are you?”
“I just wondered how anybody would even have known it was there, since it was always in the garage.”
At that, the older woman frowned. “I know he wasn’t sure when it had gone missing because he hadn’t been out there for a while. He was pretty upset about the whole thing though.”
“I can imagine,” she said gently. “Guys and their cars, right?”
“Sometimes I thought it was more important to him than I was,” she said, with a laugh. “He spent an awful lot of time with that thing.”
“I think a lot of guys feel that way about vehicles,” Kate said, smiling.
The other woman nodded. “Isn’t that the truth. And, yes, he worked on it all the time with a bunch of friends. Some came and went. A couple people seemed interested in it, and they would come over sometimes.”
“Did anybody ever take it for a drive?”
She shook her head. “No. He would never let anybody drive it. One guy wanted to buy it off him, and he wasn’t having anything to do with it.”
“And I don’t suppose you have any idea who that was,” she said in a dry tone.
Jan shook her head. “No, I can’t imagine. He was a fairly young guy, and he came back several times, but George always said no. He said that the guy wasn’t old enough to appreciate such a beauty. Because, of course, when it was the best thing in your life—or certainly a favorite hobby—you wanted to be sure they go to someone sure to look after it.”
“And you don’t remember who he was, right? How about where he lived or what he did for a job?”
“Oh, he was a mechanic,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I didn’t understand why my husband wouldn’t sell it. We could have used the money too,” she said in exasperation. “But he was always very single-minded when it came to keeping that vehicle.”
“I’m sure he was. Do you know where this guy worked?”
“Well, I just said he was a mechanic,” she said.
“No, no, I realize that,” Kate said. “I just wondered if you knew what shop he might have worked at.”
Jan frowned as she thought, and her foot tapped the concrete patio. Kate wasn’t sure if it was impatience or if it was trying to get her brain to kick in and to give her the answers she was looking for. “You know what? I think it was the one just around the corner.”
“Just around the corner?”
“Yeah,” she said, “we lived on Sixteenth in the Arbutus area,” she said, “and there was a shop just around the corner from there. I know my husband used to go talk with him every once in a while.”
“And that’s probably when he asked to buy it one more time,” she said, with a smile.
“Maybe, but I can’t be sure.”
“I can. We’ll go check it out,” she muttered.
The older woman looked at her. “I won’t be very impressed if he’s the one who stole it. My husband was devastated
.”
“I’m sure he was,” she said. “I’ll let you know.”
“Do that please,” she said. “Yes, please do that. Too bad we couldn’t have solved this before my husband’s death.”
“I agree,” she said. “It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”
And, with that, the older woman gave her a confused look and then turned to Darryl. “I think I’d like to go in now.”
“Of course you can,” he said. He shifted her chair back, so she could get up easier, and looked at Kate and Rodney. “If that’ll be all?” he asked pointedly.
She nodded. “If need be, we’ll come back,” she said, “but hopefully we won’t have to bother her again.”
“Well, it was nice seeing you,” Jan said, with a smile and a wave. And then she allowed Darryl to give her a hand getting back inside again.
As the two detectives walked around the side of the building to return to the parking lot, Kate looked over at Rodney. “You were awfully quiet in there.”
“I have found,” he said, “that older people tend to do better speaking with one person and one person only. It stops them from getting too confused, when the questioning can get a little more difficult.”
“I don’t know that the questions were difficult,” she said, “but trying to loosen things up and to jog up the bits and pieces of the memories we need can be hard.”
“Exactly,” he said. “But she did pretty well. I was quite surprised. She seems to have all her faculties.”
Kate said, “And I’m sure there were a lot of neighbors who knew about the truck, so that might be something we should follow up on too. I didn’t see anything in the original theft report about that. Did anybody follow up with the neighbors when it was originally stolen?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, “but it’s worth a quick check again. It’s funny how time has a way of loosening tongues.”
She nodded because it was very true. Sometimes people couldn’t remember anything, and sometimes they felt safer after a long period of time had elapsed and could speak the truth. “Why don’t we do that now?” she asked. She checked her watch and just then a message came from Simon. She frowned at that. “Uh-oh. Simon is telling me thirteen again.” She shook her head. “He seems to be way off the mark. I can’t make any sense of what thirteen has to do with anything.”